A bereaved father blogging for catharsis... and for distraction. Accordingly, you'll see a diverse set of topics and posts here, from the affecting to the analytical to the absurd. Something for everyone, but all, at the core, meeting a personal need.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Third Time's The Swingin' Charm

I took the boys to see Spider-Man 3 this afternoon, and I'm glad to say that it was a terrific movie, at least as good as the original and definitely better than the second installment. As such, it breaks the sequel-itis trend that has plagued so many great movies of the past - see recent discussion in Psychotoddler for lots of examples. Third installments of superhero movie serials have been especially prone to trip over their capes... Superman, X-men, Batman. The web-slinger has definitely broken that streak.

Without giving away any spoilers I'll just mention a few of SM-3's best points. In content and pacing it really felt like a filmed version of a 20 or 30 issue run of the comic book in its heyday. There were subplots introduced early on that didn't resurface until much later, as well as characters who made multiple re-appearances spaced throughout the movie. The movie certainly had its share of phenomenal action scenes, yet was far from a simple slugfest. There was genuine growth and development of both major and minor characters and relationships, as well as just the right touch of humor (as always, JJJ stole any scene he was in!).

Swing, don't walk to a theatre and see it soon! As Stan the Man said in his cameo, "Nuff Said"!

Shalom and I debated about it yesterday. We both liked III, but he didn't understand why I didn't like II as much. I haven't seen II in at least 18 months, but as I recall, it had too much cartoon violence (buildings smashing, etc.) and the characterizaion rang somewhat less true than in the original.